True, they’re a bit off the mark, but they were the ones off the top of my head. Also, in my defense, I don’t think Pottinger knows what he’s talking about either. The man glorifies Age3 like crazy, saying they had to scale back some features, fearing they’d prove too revolutionary. I love Age3, but the game was hardly world-shaking. Take its contemporary Rise of Legends, now that was a title that went balls out.

Still, I’m curious what they’re cooking up in that new studio.

There’s plenty of “evolved” RTSs in the indie scene:

• Against the storm is trying a roguelike approach
• Kingdoms and Castles is a banished-like survival with RTS elements
• Endzone is also a sort of survival-crafter with some strategy mixed in, albeit with some issues.
• Beyond All Reason is an open source RTS that’s expanding the Total Anihilation formula.
• Manor Lords is a fantastic medieval strategy
• 8/9 bit armies are colourful, fast paced strategies.

The genre is far from dead, but the problem might be audience. When they demand “evolution” that means it should pander to recent trends like survival crafting and roguelikes and whatnot. Problem is some of these formulas don’t usually pan out well for RTS games. Then there’s multiplayer and, like other commenters mentioned, ranked multiplayer usually devolves into a bunch of strangers playing the same few maps over and over, but gamers still demand multiplayer.

Alas, I see the genre as not dead but in a “doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t” spot. Meanwhile I’m sitting here waiting for a regular old historic RTS like Empire Earth or Rise of Nations.

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